Canadian skier Alex Harvey won the men's 50-kilometre freestyle cross-country ski race at the Nordic world championships Sunday.
Harvey, of St. Ferreol, Que., timed his final attack perfectly, taking the lead on the last corner and holding off Russian Sergei Ustyugov in the final sprint to win by 0.6 seconds. The Canadian celebrated in exuberant style, playing air guitar in front of the crowd.
Matti Heikkinen of Finland was 0.8 seconds further back for bronze, with a surprise fourth place for British skier Andrew Musgrave.
It was Harvey and Canada's first world championship gold in cross-country since 2011, when he and Devon Kershaw won the team sprint event.
Harvey won two gold medals at cross-country World Cups in January. One in a 15-km freestyle race in Sweden and the other in the team sprint relay with Toronto's Len Valjas in Italy.
Ustyugov finished this year's championships with five medals, two of them gold.
It was the last event of the Nordic world championships, which saw Norway take seven victories to top the medal table.
